Media Statements

(For Immediate Release May 12, 2022) 

The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo is making drastic cuts to its stable of priests following its clergy abuse scandal and ensuing bankruptcy. According to a report from Spectrum News in Syracuse, the diocese confirmed Wednesday it invited 132 active priests to apply for just 36 open positions — that’s one priest for each “parish family” as outlined in the diocese’s “Road to Renewal” initiative.

We are not surprised that church officials are quick to blame financial issues on the civil cases brought against them under New York’s Child Victims Act. The diocese quickly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020. Additionally, the church claims a decline in attendance. To us, this is a message that is clearly not being heard by the church officials and one in which they fail to admit their egregious failures.

We will never know the true extent of the secrecy that was kept. Whether it is Bishop Donald Trautman's fast-tracking of an annulment, or Bishop Richard Malone's obvious, egregious flaunting of his moral duty to report abusers and remove them from ministry, there are countless examples of secrecy that are being identified and alleged in legal filings under New York’s Child Victim's Act. Those secrets should come out and the men who allowed the abuse to continue should be held responsible. Without full knowledge of what went wrong in these cases, we cannot hope to prevent them again in the future. Unfortunately, this move by church officials to blame lawsuits and a decline in attendance robs Buffalo-area parishioners and the public from getting true answers.

The sheer number of claims reported is mind-boggling. However, we believe this will become a common theme across the country as ‘windows to justice’ continue to be passed by state legislatures. Sadly, given what we have seen over the course of our history, we are not surprised at the numbers, nor are we surprised at the content and description of these claims.

Based on the number of claims, and including the cases previously settled by the Diocese through a voluntary compensation program, there are at least 1030 victims in this one single diocese alone. Given that these cases span the past 75 years, that means that roughly 14 children were abused every single year in Buffalo. In other words, for nearly a century. more than one child per month was victimized by someone who was supposed to care for them. In the Buffalo Diocese, no boy or girl was safe. This is what the diocese should be explaining to their congregation and public, these are the answers.

We call on Bishop Michael Fisher to take the initiative to explain the truth about the “Road to Renewal” initiative and update the list of credibly accused diocesan priests, establish a list of order priests, nuns, and Catholic laity. We the rhetoric from church officials about transparency and accountability, we urge advocates and parishioners alike to demand that today.

For Immediate Release May 11, 2022) 

Fernando Cristancho, who formerly worked as a priest in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was sentenced today to 22 years in federal prison for sexually abusing a minor he met through his church and producing nude images of other minors, the US Attorney’s Office for Maryland reports. Those crimes were committed after his bosses at the Archdiocese removed him from his position at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Harford County, where he met the victim. Cristancho admitted to investigators that he produced nude images of four other children. We are grateful to the store employee who reported the images on Fr. Cristancho’s phone in 2017, to the brave survivor who was willing to testify in court, and to the police and prosecutors who helped to take this dangerous man off the streets.

According to Bishop Accountability, the Archdiocese of Baltimore fired Fr. Cristancho from St. Ignatius in July of 2002 for fathering three children by in vitro fertilization. The clergyman had been removed from a parish in Arlington, Virginia, in 1997, for the sexual abuse of an adult woman. After the 2002 firing, the cleric continued to hold services in a private home, and the victim continued to assist him as he had at St. Ignatius. It was during this period of time that the boy was sexually abused.

It is astonishing that a priest tossed out of a parish in Virginia in 1997 for sexual abuse ended up working in a parish in Maryland, yet we have seen this pattern from church officials far too many times. Still more appalling is the fact that he was so poorly supervised after his firing from a church in Maryland in 2002 that he was able to continue holding masses. (Fr. Cristancho's priestly faculties were apparently not revoked until 2004.) But most appalling is the fact that in 2008 the cleric lost custody of his three children because the court found that he had sexually abused his two sons.

(For Immediate Release May 11, 2022)

For the first time, the United States government is quantifying and reporting on the deaths of indigenous children that occurred in government-run or supported boarding schools. As advocates for survivors of clergy abuse, we hope that the government will look into how many children were abused and killed in schools run by institutions like the catholic church, a human rights disaster that has been widely reported to have occurred in Canada and that we can only assume happened in the United States as well.

According to early reports, the report by the U.S. Department of the Interior has identified at least 400 culpable schools and 50 gravesites, numbers that are shocking and assuredly, only the tip of the iceberg. There are myriad cases that have already been reported of abusive clergy being transferred to indigenous communities and we can only assume that this report will bring more to the fore. This fact is especially troubling when one realizes that religious institutions were paid to put indigenous children into boarding schools. In this way, the church was therefore compensated for saddling these children with a lifetime of trauma recovery.

For Immediate Release May 5, 2022) 

On Friday,April 29, 2022, Fr. Benedict Jurchak, TOR, was removed from ministry by the Archdiocese of Washington, where he had been working as a chaplain in a veterans' retirement home.  We are grateful to the Archdiocese of Washington for removing Fr. Jurchak and applaud the brave woman who courageously spoke out on social media. 

According to the statement released by TOR, in 2019 Fr. Jurchak was temporarily removed from ministry when a single allegation of sexual misconduct involving an adult woman was reported to the Franciscans. In the following years, both the police and an independent lay investigator reviewed the claim and found that it could not be substantiated. A female lay canonist also conducted an investigation in accord with canon law and made the same finding, which was accepted by the Franciscans after consultation with a lay review board. The review board also accepted the recommendation of the canonist that some financial assistance be offered to the complainant, to assist with therapeutic costs. While the Franciscans disclosed all this to the Archdiocese of Washington prior to  Fr. Jurchak's assignment there, "the recent public attention given once again to this single, unsubstantiated allegation has made it impossible, from the perspective of the Archdiocese, for him to continue to minister effectively there."

(For Immediate Release May 5, 2022) 

In what appears to be a "speed of light" investigation, Fr. Michael Scully is back to work a little over a month after his suspension. Fr. Scully's suspension was announced on March 25, 2022, in the Kansas City Kansas Archdiocesan publication, The Leaven. 

It is troubling that the Archdiocese was notified of the accusation on February 28th of this year, but apparently did not take any action for almost a month. Fr. Scully should have been suspended immediately. As best as we can tell, there was no public notice of the suspension. Most Catholic abuse survivors do not read diocesan publications. However, those same officials apparently took the time to release a public statement when a Church panel "cleared" the priest, likely discouraging other victims from coming forward.

We find it disappointing and irresponsible that at no point over the past few months did any Church official - from Archbishop to pastor, in Kansas or Colorado - use his pulpit or website or parish bulletin to seek out anyone who might have seen, suspected, or suffered wrongdoing by Fr. Scully.

(For Immediate Release May 4, 2022) 

California's Catholic Bishops petition the U.S. Supreme Court in a challenge to window legislation

Catholic officials in California have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case challenging the state for permitting victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits after the timeframe to pursue legal action has already twice expired. The bishops outlined two concerns: that recent legislation allowed claimants to revive civil actions and that it imposed new consequences in those suits.

“This time, defendants' past conduct is subject not only to claims for compensatory and punitive damages that were previously time-barred twice over but also to additional penalties (in the form of ‘treble’ damages) based on a newly defined category of ‘cover up’ activity,” the petition argued.

We are not surprised that Catholic officials in California are fearful of the lawsuits that allow those who have been time-barred from justice access to the courts.  These suits represent transparency and honesty and would make it far more difficult to pretend that their abuse scandal is a thing of the past. Window legislation is allowing thousands of victims of abuse by Catholic clergy, nuns, religious brothers, and laity to come forward and expose these crimes.

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 3, 2022) 

Edwin Graf says he was sexually abused by a trusted member and employee of his church, St. Patrick's Parish in Corning, Iowa. The abuse happened almost five decades ago, in the 1970s. He says he was sexually abused at least 12 times, starting when he was 13 and ending when he was 15.

Graff stated that a church member and employee, Dr. John Ott, was his abuser. Ott has been imprisoned since 2013 for engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors in Kenya. Court records show that Ott also started an orphanage in Kenya. Ott admitted that between approximately January 2004 and September 2012, he engaged in illicit sexual conduct in Muhuru Bay, Sori and Kendu Bay, Kenya, with at least 14 minors, who ranged in age from approximately nine to 17 years old when the illicit sexual conduct began.  

We know that it took a lot of courage for the survivor to share his story and we applaud him for standing up against the very institution that failed to protect him. We hope his courage and strength will empower others who may have suffered sexual abuse or have information about the alleged perpetrator, Dr. John Ott, to report their information immediately to law enforcement.

Our concern is that this allegation dates to the 1970s and Ott was only arrested in 2012. To us, this is a red flag that there are most likely more victims out there and a sure signal that Ott made a long career out of abusing children. The convicted Ott admitted abusing up to the year of his arrest, it may take 40 more years for the potentially unknown victims to disclose their own horror.

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 3, 2022) 

Westminster Abbey in Mission, British Columbia has announced the resignation, effective May 3, 2022, of Abbot John Braganza, OSB after working in this role for 16 years. According to the B.C. Catholic news, the decision was made after months of personal and community discernment.

We can’t help but think that the current civil lawsuit, naming the Abbey as a defendant, may have played a role in the abrupt resignation of Braganza.  Mark O'Neill, a man who claims he was sexually assaulted as a high school seminarian plans to appear in B.C. Supreme Court Thursday to seek records from the Vatican's representative in Canada about the monk who he claims abused him. The application follows the emergence in O'Neill's case of an anonymous letter allegedly sent decades ago to the former head of the abbey that runs the seminary, warning about the now-deceased Benedictine monk at the heart of the lawsuit. O'Neill is suing the seminary, which is owned by the Benedictines and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver.

It is interesting to note that the statement released by the Abbey, mentions concerns regarding "his (Braganza) interpersonal relations” and yet highlights that “there are no allegations of sexual misconduct or of any misconduct with minors.” We urge the Abbey or any church official to define “concerns surrounding interpersonal relations.” If there was some impropriety involving Abbot Braganza, that information needs to be immediately disclosed.

In any case, we sound a second alarm for “change and renewal” and encourage church officials to ensure the Abbot and any others with knowledge of abuse or history at the Abbey not be shielded from depositions during the lawsuit and should be made to answer questions regardless of their current employment status. 

CONTACT: Leona Huggins, SNAP Leader Vancouver – British Columbia, (604-240-3741, [email protected]) Michael McDonnell, SNAP Communication Manager ([email protected]), 267-261-0578), Zach Hiner, SNAP Executive Director ([email protected], 517-974-9009) Shaun Dougherty, SNAP Board President ([email protected], 814-341-8386)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 2, 2022)

Four years after he was first accused of sexual abuse, the Diocese of Toledo announced that the Vatican has concluded that Fr. Nelson Beaver be removed from ‘priestly ministry. We applaud the brave survivors in this case and hope that their example encourages others who may still be suffering in silence to come forward, make a report, and start healing.

Fr. Nelson Beaver was first placed on administrative leave in October 2018 after one survivor came forward. Following that first accusation of sexual abuse, three other similar allegations came to light. While the Diocese of Toledo completed its own investigation in 2019, no action was taken until this weekend when the Vatican’s decision was finally announced to parishioners and the public. We are disappointed, but not surprised, that it took the Vatican years to make any decision on this case.

Now that Fr. Beaver has finally been remanded to a lifetime of prayers and penance, we feel it is incumbent upon church officials in Toledo should start seeking out other victims. We know from experience that if even if a few victims step forward in bravery to disclose the abuse they suffered, many more sit in a pain-filled silence. We believe it is likely that there are more victims out there.  Additionally, if it is revealed that accusations against Beaver included a cover-up or inaction from church officials, they too should be investigated and suspended from ministry.

Given the scientific reality of delayed disclosure and how this affects survivors of sexual abuse, it is not surprising to us that we are learning of more cases of sexual abuse from the late 1980s and 1990s. As time marches on, we are confident that more and more stories will be brought into the light as more and more survivors finally feel comfortable coming forward.

CONTACT: Contact: Claudia Vercellotti, SNAP Leader, Toledo, Ohio, (419-345-9291
[email protected]), Mike McDonnell, SNAP Communications Manager (267-261-0578, [email protected]), Zach Hiner, Executive Director (517-974-9009, [email protected])

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for more than 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)